The Hindu : No discrimination, says PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 04, 2003

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No discrimination, says PM

By Our Staff Correspondent

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, releasing a souvenir at the national convention on "Educational and economic development of minorities" in New Delhi on Saturday. He is flanked by the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Satyanarayan Jatia (left), and the Civil Aviation Minister, Shahnawaz Hussain. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

NEW DELHI MAY 3. Calling upon the people to resolve issues through mutual negotiations, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today assured minorities that his Government was opposed to any discrimination on the basis of religion. He said he personally looked into complaints based on religious discrimination.

Inaugurating a national convention on "Educational and economic development of minorities" organised by the Central Wakf Council, the Maulana Azad Education Foundation and the Ministry of Social Development and Empowerment, here today, Mr. Vajpayee said that all issues could be resolved amicably through consultations. "If the solution does not come immediately, we should wait for the right time instead of rushing to look for a solution. But it is necessary to observe restraint, both by the majority and minority community,'' he said.

The Constitution gave equal rights to people of all communities and there was no harm in the will of the majority prevailing but it was important that the voice of the minority be heard particularly, though both the communities had equal rights under the Constitution.

"We have special provisions for the minority, which do not come as a favour but it can be described as the Indian way of living together in a family," he said.

Criticising those who propagated that the NDA Government was "anti-minority", Mr. Vajpayee said it was a huge country with a large number of people who had complaints and grouses. "There is nothing that cannot be resolved through talks. People are running a campaign to malign the Government," he said adding that not everyone believed in these allegations.

"There are times when people feel dejected and frustrated in their country but India belongs to everyone and each one of us has a role to play in its development," he said.

Stressing the need for education for the economic development of the minorities, Mr. Vajpayee said that any other kind of backwardness could be compensated later but educational backwardness could never be overcome.

It was not necessary that minorities always remained a minority in politics. His party was a minority in Parliament for several decades but came into a majority eventually.

"I don't know how long I will stay in majority because one never knows when the allies decide to snap ties," he said adding that nothing can be certain in politics but hoped that his flock would stay together.

The Civil Aviation Minister, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, called upon the minorities to be wary of the attempts being made to use them to malign the NDA Government.

"Whenever the issue of minorities comes into focus, it revolves round a few issues such as riots and the Government spends its resources on denying allegations invariably heaped on it while the real problems remain unaddressed," he said.

Referring to a negative campaign being launched against the Centre's policy on madrassas (Muslim seminaries), Mr. Hussain said the Government had done exemplary work in giving grants to such educational institutes as well as increasing subsidy to the Haj pilgrims.

The only major communal riots during the Vajpayee tenure was Gujarat where the Government had gone "out of its way" to "heal the wounds" of the victims.

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